Tonight/ today, we celebrate that fact that Christus resurrexit! Resurrexit vere! -Christ is Risen! He is truly risen from the dead; He is alive.

Tonight/today we celebrate the most solemn feast of Our Holy Mother Church’s liturgical year-Easter. (And the Easter Vigil is known as the mother of all vigils). It is the most solemn of all Feasts because we celebrate the fact that Jesus Christ has truly risen from the dead. And so, the Resurrection of Christ as truly changed the whole world.

Tonight, however, at this Holy Mass, we don’t just remember the Resurrection as something that occurred in the past-the Resurrection of Jesus becomes truly present in our midst now, because the Resurrected One becomes truly present in our midst now. He is truly and really with us-spiritually, sacramentally, and substantially, physically, bodily and personally. And Jesus comes with His Divine Power to change us, to save us, to transform us; so that, through us He can change, transform and save our fallen and falling world. The Resurrection of Christ can truly change the whole world.

The Resurrected Jesus is truly present tonight/today, no matter the level or the strength of our faith. But is the level of our faith, along with our level of hope, an especially the level of our love that opens up for us…open us up to, the Divine Power of Jesus the Resurrected One.

Faith, hope and love are divine gifts from God. They cannot be earned by merely being “good.” They must be given from above, from God, and increased through our merit which comes from our striving with all our might to live our lives in holiness; that is, live our lives in conformity to God’s Holy Will, and so, in conformity to His Commandments and to the teachings of His One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

Let us this most Holy of all nights, beg our Lord for an increase of faith, so we can listen more fully to His Word with the determination to live it out more faithfully in our lives; so we can live the obedience of faith, faithful to Jesus by being faithful to His Church and to her Sacred Priesthood, persevering to the end, no matter what that end may be or when and how it may come.

Let us beg Him for an increase of Hope, so we can trust that He is really with us here in this Holy place, so He can always be with us throughout our life in order to strengthen and sustains us, comfort and console us, and heal and save us. Hoping and trusting as well, in His Divine Mercy and forgiveness which comes to us through the Sacraments of Confession and the Holy Eucharist.

And let us beg Him most of all for an increase of the gift of love; so we can love Him more. In fact, love Him above all things in order to love our neighbor as ourselves. In other words, so that we can offer ourselves totally in love to the God who offers Himself totally in love to us at this and every Holy Mass, for true love is always an exchange of persons.

Finally, with this being said, it is important in our Faith of the true Historical and bodily Resurrection of Jesus that we understand that Jesus died and Resurrected in order to be able to give us Himself; in order to give us Himself in His True, Resurrected Body, Blood, Soul, along with the Power of His Divinity in the Holy Eucharist, the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar…For to believe, to have faith in the Resurrection, in order to receive it’s divine power in our lives and in our world, it is first necessary first to believe, to adore, to hope and to love, the Resurrected Jesus Christ truly present in the Most Holy Eucharist.

The Power of the Resurrection is contained fully in the little white host, because it is the Resurrected One. And faith is the key that opens us up to this Divine Power, our adoration is what puts us in contact with It, our trust is what endears the Heart of Jesus to us, and receiving His Love and loving Him in return is what makes us one with Him in love.

So let us today/tonight let us rejoice, and open our hearts more fully to the Divine Power of God, which is the Power of His Divine Love. Let today/tonight be the first day of a new intense life with Christ. Here at the Holy Mass and only at the Holy Mass can we truly participate in this life giving, suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus. The Holy Mass makes these events truly present before us, not just at Easter but at every Sunday Mass which is a miniature Easter, so that we in faith can be present at them and actively draw from them their transforming and live giving power, which is the power of God’s Love for us.

Tonight/ today, we celebrate that fact that Christus resurrexit! Resurrexit vere! -Christ is Risen! He is truly risen from the dead; He is alive. They have not taken our Lord from the tomb, our Lord has taken Himself from the tomb; and we who have the true faith know where He is; He is truly with us in His Resurrected body in the Holy Eucharist about to made truly present at this Mass and every Mass. And He so desires to give Himself and His love fully to us in Holy Communion so that we can share more intensely in the victory and the Divine Power of His Resurrection in our lives and share it with our world. The Eucharist is the God who is Love; only in the Resurrection One, Jesus, can we be victorious. Alleluia!